A new study from Bitcoin startup Veriphi finds companies and users sending bitcoin transactions could have saved more than half a billion dollars in fees if all companies, including wallets and exchanges, had used the most up-to-date technology.

Each bitcoin transaction has an optional fee tacked on. Users have the ability to choose the amount of this fee. If the Bitcoin blockchain is particularly busy, seeing too many transactions at once, a higher fee will ensure a transaction gets picked up by miners and goes through faster.

Bitcoin fees cost an average of about $3 per transaction, according to Bitcoin statistic site bitinfocharts. Fees rise with demand. There have been times in Bitcoins history, particularly in 2017, when fees exploded due to increasing demand. Bitcoin has limited space for transactions, so users had to pay higher fees if they wanted their transaction to go through faster.

These fees are a pain, so bitcoin developers have spent a lot of energy on carving out more Bitcoin block space to make room for new users and their transactions while keeping within the actual block-size constraint of 1 MB.

Transaction batching and SegWit

Veriphis report concludes companies could have saved 21,131.97 BTC in fees (worth $195 million) if all transactions from January 2012 to June 2020 had used a technique called transaction batching.

Transaction batching is a way of sending multiple transactions at once in order to cut down on paying for each individual transaction. This option is more likely to be used by companies, like exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, which send several transactions at once, rather than singular users.

Plus, users could have saved 36,685.72 BTC in fees (worth $339 million) if SegWit had been used on all transactions from August 2017 to June 2020. That adds up to a total of 57,817.69 BTC, worth more than $534 million at the time the report was released.

SegWit, officially added to Bitcoin in 2017, is a technology that allows for more space for transactions per block.

Even though SegWit was activated nearly three years ago, each individual wallet and bitcoin service needs to individually add support for these types of transactions. In some cases, individual users still need to opt in to using SegWit-enabled addresses for their transactions.

As can be expected, wallets and other bitcoin services have so far adopted SegWit at their own pace. Adding a new way to send transactions isnt a trivial task and requires engineering bandwidth; as such, some companies have not prioritized making the necessary infrastructure changes to their platforms.

If average fees grow higher than users would like, however, users who want to save on fees may jump from these slow-to-act platforms over to a bitcoin wallet or exchange thats adopted SegWit.

Bitcoin fees and the next bull run

That said, Gustavo J. Flores, Veriphi head of product and research argued that both SegWit and transaction batching have been around for years. And users of these wallets and services could have saved a lot of money if these technologies had been used for that entire time.

I saw the news a couple of months ago of Coinbase integrating transaction batching into their system and I thought how late that was, given that batching has been around since 2011 or 2012. We were wondering, how big was the impact of all these companies and users that hadnt adopted batching and Segwit? And it turned out to be a pretty substantial number: half a billion dollars, Flores told CoinDesk.

Now that bitcoins price has jumped to more than $11,000, perhaps signalling the start of the next bull run, its time to consider a scenario where fees might be on the rise again.

In the report, Veriphi encourages any person or entity responsible for sending many transactions to think about best practices for saving money on fees.

The savings potential presented is significant and those conducting large amounts of transactions should seriously consider employing these tools in order to remain competitive and save money.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Bitcoin Scaling Tech Could Have Saved Companies and Users $500M in Fees: Report - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Despite being extremely volatile when compared to traditional asset classes, bitcoin (BTC) maintains a market equilibrium nature for the majority of the time, according to arecent report by cryptocurrency research firm Zubr.

The report emerged just a few days after bitcoin rallied beyond the $12,000 mark and its volatility finallyrecovered from a multi-year low, Cointelegraph reports.

Using data from CoinAPI, a cryptocurrency market data provider, Zubr found that bitcoin price swings are typically accompanied by nearly symmetrical movements on the opposite side, creating opportunities both on the positive and negative side.

According to Zubr: The majority of the time, Bitcoin will almost mimic the exact percentage increase with a percentage decrease on the very same day.

Typically, this mirror effect takes place within the same trading day, but Zubr also found that it can also occur over the course of longer time periods.

This means that over the short term, bitcoins recent rally to $12,000 could see a similar return to the $10,000 levels and a number of otherfactors point to the possibility of this pullback.

Developing a better awareness of market equilibrium and its relation to bitcoins price can be extremely insightful when incorporated into a day-trading strategy, especially considering that the volatility phenomenon discussed earlier has been constant since 2017.

Traders can ride the volatility and gain from both shorting and longing bitcoin on a daily basis. However, this is only one of the many things traders should have in mind.

According to Zubr: What the data is effectively indicating is lower risk opportunities are possible if one is to trust the historical events and deem such a swing intrinsic to bitcoins trading character. For example, should bitcoin increase by 10% and retreat back to its opening price, history indicates that there is an overwhelming chance (over 50%) that the price drops between 9-12% within the same day or following day.

While inconclusive on its own, this data point can be used when composing a strategy for intraday and momentum trading styles.

In the meantime, only time will tell if Bitcoin will maintain its current market equilibrium or continue higher above the $12K mark.

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Bitcoin will drop to $10K before rally resumes - Asia Times

Interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including ethereum, is boomingfueled by unprecedented central bank stimulus measures and rocketing demand for alternative finance.

The bitcoin price, up around 30% so far this year, is being left in the dust by huge gains seen by some smaller cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin, has almost doubled in value so far this yearand the number of active ethereum addresses is growing at nearly twice the rate of bitcoins.

Bitcoin remains the world's most valuable cryptocurrency by a wide margin, though a recent rally in ... [+] the price of some smaller cryptocurrencies has left bitcoin in the dust.

Ethereums active address count has increased by 118% since the beginning of the year, data from blockchain analytics firm Messari, first reported by crypto news site Decrypt, has shown.

Meanwhile, bitcoins active address count has increased by just 49%.

"The level of development on ethereum is crazy: initial coin offerings, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens, decentralized exchanges and other decentralized finance applications, Web 3 use cases," Messari chief executive Ryan Selkis said via email, though he added bitcoin remains "the industry's dominant asset and most important project."

The ethereum price has also surged this year, with ethereum's tradable token ether now trading at around $240up almost 90% from $130 at the start of January. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has seen its post-coronavirus crash rally halted in its tracks since May with bitcoin repeatedly trying and failing to break the psychological $10,000 per bitcoin level.

Despite the excitement swirling around ethereum, recent setbacks, including a warning that ethereum 2.0 may be delayed again, is leaving the door open for competitors.

"There's a lot of demand for smart contract platforms that scale, so there's a big opening in the market right now with ethereum 2.0 delayed, [processing] prices high, and well-funded competitors launching imminently," Selkis said.

The ethereum price has ticked up over the last 12 months with ethereum outpacing bitcoin's recent ... [+] rally by a considerable margin.

One such cryptocurrency, chainlink, has been boosted by a surge of interest in decentralized finance, sometimes known as DeFithe idea that blockchain entrepreneurs can use bitcoin and crypto technology to recreate traditional financial instruments such as loans and insurance.

The chainlink price is up by around 1,000% on the last year, hitting fresh all-time highs over the last few days.

However, some cryptocurrency and ethereum developers have cautioned against investors viewing blockchains and cryptocurrency tokens as in competition.

"Viewing other blockchains as competitors to ethereum isnt the right framework to view the crypto space," Kosala Hemachandra, founder and chief executive of MyEtherWallet, who's been developing on ethereum since its 2015 launch, said via email, adding delays to ethereum 2.0 "arent stopping or slowing the many projects building on ethereum."

DeFi has been found to be one of the biggest drivers of ethereum growth in recent months, with DeFi applications accounting for over 97% of all decentralized app volume on ethereum according to a July report from Dapp.com.

"Different blockchains have separate goals and purposes," Hemachandra said.

"Some are primarily focused on value transactions while others support decentralized app development, for example. You have to look beyond market cap to really evaluate blockchain development."

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Ethereum Is Beating Bitcoin In More Ways Than One - Forbes

Cyber-criminals have compromised a British cryptocurrency exchange, making off with over $3min Bitcoin.

Cashaa has halted all its crypto-related transactions after cyber-criminals stole more than 336 Bitcoin from its exchange. The company has said that prima facia users have not been impacted by the theft.

In a media brief shared with Cointelegraph, Cashaas CEO Kumar Gaurav said: We are still investigating the damage caused by the incident and suspend all the withdrawals for 24 hours.

Kumar said that the theft occurred after malicious hackers compromised one of the exchanges digital wallets. Once access had been gained, the hackers sent the cryptocurrency contained within the wallet to themselves.

Guarav said that he had reason to believe that the cyber-criminals who hit Cashaa are based in East Delhi, India. Acting on this suspicion, the exchange has filed a cyber-crime incident report with the Delhi crime bureau under the cryptocurrency crime category.

A meeting of Cashaas board has been called to determine whether the company will bear all the losses associated with the crime.

Cashaa said it believes that to carry out the theft, cyber-criminals installed malware onto a computer used to make exchange transfers like user withdrawals. This malware sent a notification to the cyber-criminals at 1:23pm on July 10 when an employee logged into the account and made two transfers from a Blockchain.com wallet. It was this wallet that was then compromised and illegally relieved of over 336 Bitcoin.

The company is now taking steps to prevent the cyber-criminals who hit Cashaa from selling the stolen cryptocurrency on exchanges. On Twitter, Cashaa posted the Bitcoin address of the hacker in hopes of tracking any movement of the illegally acquired funds.

Guarav said Bitcoin thefts were on the rise because some cryptocurrency exchanges made it easy for cyber-criminals to launder stolen funds.

As of today, hackers are very confident to hack crypto-addresses and move it through exchanges that are facilitating such laundering through their systems, said Guarav.

Exchanges like these must be shut down and owners of these exchanges should be charged with money laundering facilitation crime.

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Bitcoin Thieves Hit Cashaa - Infosecurity Magazine

According to data from CoinMetrics, a sell-off on Bitstamp led the market-wide plunge of Bitcoin (BTC). The top cryptocurrency by market capitalization dropped $150 within seconds on the exchange, well below the average market price at the time.

Researchers at CoinMetrics said:

Today's market drop was led by trade activity on Bitstamp, where Bitcoin's price dropped $150 in seconds, well below the rest of the market.

The price of Bitcoin drops lower on Bitstamp than other exchanges on July 10. Source: CoinMetrics

The sell-off on Bitstamp coincided with a sudden dump of BTC by miners. ByteTree shows miners sold 558 more BTC than they mined in the last 24 hours. This suggests that miners led the correction of Bitcoin on July 9, possibly trading on Bitstamp.

Miners are one of the two external sources of unmatched selling pressure on Bitcoin, as investor Willy Woo previously explained.

When miners begin to sell BTC and the market does not immediately absorb the selling pressure it can lead to an abrupt pullback. That is what likely happened on July 10 when the price of BTC dropped to around $9,100 from $9,400.

Throughout the past month, miners have been selling a modest amount of BTC regularly. But miners have always maintained a positive net inventory for over five straight weeks. In other words, miners have been selling less BTC than they mined since the start of June.

As miners started to sell a relatively large amount of Bitcoin for the first time in over a month, BTC saw a rapid, short-term price drop.

Miners sold off an unusually large amount of Bitcoin in the last 24 hours. Source: ByteTree

Although the sell-off primarily occurred on Bitstamp, the firms executive emphasized that it was not a flash crash. Hunter Merghart, head of U.S. operations at the exchange, said it was merely a normal market activity.

Merghart said:

Happy to see market moves analyzed but not sure a ~2% move should be called a flash crash. This is also how markets work, especially when an exchange doesn't act as a market maker. We let our clients try to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities, not ourselves.

Simply put, sellers on Bitstamp likely kickstarted the unexpected 2% price drop of Bitcoin followed by organic selling pressure from traders and clients on the exchange.

After the price of BTC dropped to around $9,110 across major exchanges, it rebounded quickly to above $9,200.

The swift rebound of Bitcoin might suggest that a sudden sell-off on Bitstamp possibly by miners triggered the drop. Based on the reaction of buyers in the $9,000 to $9,100 support area, the probability of a continued recovery of BTC price remains high.

If a one-off event caused a BTC drop to a level that presents significant liquidity for buyers, the probability of a strong reaction from bulls might increase.

Cryptocurrency trader Michael van de Poppe wrote:

Bitcoin is still holding support above the $9,000 barrier. A breakthrough further of $9,300 could lead toward $9,600. Essentially, anything between $8,500 and $10,500 is playground time for altcoins and that could last a few months longer.

In the near-term, traders generally consider the $9,300 level to be a strong area of resistance. A reclaim of $9,300 is likely to see a retest of the high-$9Ks, analysts say.

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This Exchange Crashed Bitcoin Price to $9K: Heres Why Thats Bullish - Cointelegraph